Intricate and beautiful Alien skinned designs, exotic planet locations and interesting technology. Some insight into Star Wars Episode 7? No, it’s a Farscape Season 2 Blu-Ray review.Us Aussies have a strange relationship with Farscape. For starters, we love a good Space Opera, but on the other hand, we wince that Australian or New Zealand accents sometimes don’t mix that well with this particular genre.That is not so evident with Farscape as local accents are sometimes masked by American ones and a fantastic story makes us forget all about it. Besides, what should we expect from a show that was filmed right here in Sydney Australia by the Henson Company?

Season One of Farscape on Blu-Ray has been released around the same time as Season Two.In Season One, everything is set up. Characters are established and relationships are formed. Some characters love each other. Others have an uneasy alliance. Others just can’t stand each other. Us viewers love them all.Let’s highlight some of them, shall we?John Critchon, the human that has been blasted through a wormhole amongst a group of alien criminals on the run.Chiana, the sexy blue skinned alien that sweet talks the group.And then there we have Zahn. The wise guru of the group. Beautifully painted skin and portrayed by Aussie veteran actor Virgina Hey. Moya, the living ship has her beautiful copper backdrop. And let’s not the puppets - the animatronics on the ship’s Pilot looks great but poor Rygel often gets confused with an outcast villain Muppet and those awesome little DRD robots that maintain the ship. Aeryn Sun and D'argo.This brings us to Farscape Season 2 which is presented here for the first time in Australia is on Blu-ray.“So what?” you ask. “Farscape has been on DVD for years. What makes this any different? Besides, it’s only Farscape.” Well, from an Australian perspective this is a big deal.For starters,it goes without saying that the Farscape Season 2 Blu-rays are completely uncut. Remember when Farscape was reduced to ‘Children’s Hour’ at a 4 PM time-slot back when it got shifted from the Saturday night time-slot back in the very late 90’s? The episodes were cut heavily to accommodate for this time slot and plot and dialogue made absolutely no sense in places. Of course here in HD, the show gets in due and is shown in it’s full glory. It finally gets it’s chance to shine. John Critchon’s human wit that the Aliens don’t get is still there. The characters are more fluid in their dialogue now after feeling more comfortable around each other.Are the episodes good in Farscape : Season Two? They’re a mixed bag. Like many sci-fi shows, the episodes are either hit or miss. You’ll have a great episode like ‘ Liars, Guns and Money Part I: A Not So Simple Plan‘, but then you’ll have an episode that leaves you numb and wondering what what was the point.After watching this Season, I was really hungry for more Farscape. I wanted to see these characters again. Yes, I could watch the later seasons, but I wanted to see these characters and new alien encounters. It’s like a hole in my chest that hasn’t been filled. But it partially has been with the creator of Farscape, Rockne S. O'Bannon's new Syfy series ‘Defiance’.

Video : 3.5/5Yes, these Blu-Ray disks are simply upscaled SD picture. But bear this in mind : the DVD releases were very pixelated in places. The artifacing was very evident. None of that here. The show was shot at in 4:3 format. A common thing to do back in the day. The show is presented in it’s purest form that it is supposed to be released.A vast improvement over the DVDs, the pictures quality is beautiful. Moya’s beautiful copper background really shines through here. On a HD TV the picture is sharp.

Audio: 3.5/5The audio is DTS 5.1. You'll hear the shaking of the ship earthquake through the speakers. You’ll hear explosions. Your family members will ask you to turn the TV down. The cast’s dialogue echoes throughout the whole ship.

Extras : 3.5/5There are an abundance of extras in this Season 2 set. Very impressive collection here, in fact :

Re: Union : The original Season 2 Premiere.

Blooper reel.

5 Audio Commentaries.

Farscape in Raw : Director's Cut scenes for 8 episodes.

Deleted Scenes for 9 episodes.

Listening in with composer Guy Gross.

Behind-the-Scenes Interviews with Wayne Pygram and David Franklin.

Farscape Undressed : behind-the scenes-special.

If you're a fan of the show you'll especially find these interesting like I did and it's important to note that these extras are NOT on the previously released Season 2 DVD set.

Overall : 3.5/5

For 1060 minutes and extras for $49, this is a great frellin’ set.Thinking of upgrading from your DVD set? Go ahead, buy it.

Hi,
Could you tell me if this australian release is the same as the US one? does it offer subtitles as well?

And more importantly, I noticed the US BD was slowed down to 24 fps, while the show was shot at 25 fps. Could you tell me what the frame rate is on this Blu-Ray? An easy way to make sure is checking the runtime of the eps, they should run around 44min for season 2, or 46min if slowed down.

Thank you.

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